NOM's Brian Brown: Gay Marriage Bans May Soon 'Come Back To Life'

By

Carlos Santoscoy

|
May 14, 2018

Brian Brown, president of the National
Organization for Marriage (NOM), is fundraising with the claim that
state laws and constitutional amendments limiting marriage to
heterosexual couples may soon “come back to life.”

Such bans were struck down by the
Supreme Court in 2015. In Obergefell, the high court found
that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry.

NOM won a decisive victory in 2008 when
it put a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as a
heterosexual union on the California ballot. Proposition 8
effectively rolled back such rights for gay couples in the state. It
remained in effect until 2013.

In a fundraising email, Brown claimed
that it's just “one vote shy of having a pro-marriage majority in
the U.S. Supreme Court” and reversing Obergefell.

“The only thing that has happened to
Prop 8 and all the other pro-marriage laws in states around the
country is that they are not being enforced because of the
illegitimate, anti-constitutional ruling by the US Supreme Court in
the Obergefell case imposing gay ‘marriage’ on the
nation,” Brown
wrote.

“While it may be inconvenient for the
Left, the fact is that Proposition 8 in California and the laws in
dozens of other states remain on the books and will come back to life
when the Obergefell case is eventually overturned, which it
clearly should be and we believe will be, perhaps sooner than people
imagine.”

“We are just one vote shy of having a
pro-marriage majority on the US Supreme Court. If Anthony Kennedy
decides to retire this year as many expect, we will have a realistic
chance to promote a pro-marriage nominee from President [Donald]
Trump in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Neil Gorsuch,” he added.

While it may be true that Trump has
nominated conservative judges, including Gorsuch, though it remains
unclear how he would vote on same-sex marriage, support for marriage
equality continues to climb and the high court is not in the habit of
reversing itself. Additionally, a case challenging Obergefell
would first have to reach the Supreme Court.